In Maryland’s 6th Congressional District, Democrat April McClain Delaney and former Rep. David Trone are pouring tens of millions of dollars into a Tuesday primary that won’t decide control of Congress—leaving voters wrestling with an advertising-heavy spectac
Last weekend, Rep. April McClain Delaney stood with a coalition of paid canvassers and volunteers and snapped, “What a frickin’ waste,” after talking about the money she and her opponent, former Rep. David Trone, have put into their midterm ambitions.
It was a line that landed because the race it described is hard to miss—an all-consuming. money-soaked fight between two wealthy Democrats for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District. Tuesday’s contest will do little to decide who controls Congress. Yet in one of the country’s most expensive media markets. the primary has become a test of something bigger than party identity: whether politics is serving the public when the stakes are. for many voters. drowned out by cost.
Across the country. established Democrats have been trying to fend off left-leaning insurgents seen by some as reminiscent of the Tea Party wave that reshaped Republicans’ congressional identity in the 2010 midterms. But the Maryland fight is not built like those battles. And unlike an earlier spring Kentucky House primary in which incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie. a Republican. faced President Donald Trump’s wrath and lost his seat. there is no scandal here. no betrayal. no moment of party abandonment to explain the barrage of attack ads.
Instead. there is a sense that the primary itself is a symptom of politics not functioning in the public’s best interest. Several other Democrats are on the ballot. but they have largely been blocked out by the personal feud playing out between the two top spenders. And in a year when Democrats have pushed affordability and the economy as major themes. the spectacle risks undercutting the argument with a spectacle of its own.
One candidate in a separate downballot Maryland race—speaking to MS NOW on condition of anonymity—put it bluntly: “It doesn’t help the case that the idea of democracy is that all of us can participate if the only way you can participate is by spending this much money.”
Whatever happens Tuesday, the seat will realistically remain in Democratic hands in the fall. The district stretches from the Washington suburbs to the state borders with West Virginia and Pennsylvania. In 2024, the last election was close: McClain Delaney won by a little over 6 points against a GOP challenger. Still. Republicans are not likely to treat the seat as winnable given that the midterms are expected to function as a referendum on the president.
The numbers show why the primary has drawn so much attention even without a control-of-Congress consequence. Federal campaign finance records show the 70-year-old Trone has put more than $25 million of his own money into the race. McClain Delaney, 62, has countered with about $10 million so far to defend her seat.
Both candidates are well-known figures in Maryland politics. McClain Delaney is the wife of the district’s former congressman John Delaney. a financier who left Congress after the 2018 midterms for a long-shot White House run. Trone held the seat until a failed U.S. Senate campaign two years ago, when he lost the primary. Trone co-founded the Total Wine stores, and he has built a reputation as a reliable political self-funder. He loaned his losing 2024 Senate effort more than $60 million.
Out of office, Trone has taken aim at how McClain Delaney approaches the job while Trump and his allies run Washington. “She has violated what the 6th District expects from a Democrat, and that’s voting with the Republicans,” Trone said.
But to voters who are not obsessing over the minute details. the differences in practice can seem hard to pin down. Both candidates present as reliably blue Democrats, with a few blurry exceptions. Their attacks instead revolve around specific decisions and how they’ve tried to frame them for the electorate.
McClain Delaney has targeted Trone over what she argues are GOP-friendly departures. including bipartisan immigration and defense votes in which she broke from many in her own party. Trone, for his part, has stressed that he supported congressional term limits alongside Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In building his case. Trone has emphasized his ability to bring money back to the district. a pitch reinforced by the fact that he served on the House committee dealing with the flows of federal money while he was in Washington. McClain Delaney has sought to label him as “incredibly transactional. ” while positioning herself as the candidate who “leads from the heart.” She has framed her approach as comfort for a scared public. calling herself “a big mama bear.”.
Before primary day. Trone made campaign rounds at a Juneteenth event and was recognized frequently by community members for his television ads. His familiarity through the screen could matter even as his opponents and their allies have pushed back. “All those folks don’t make a damn bit of difference in this district,” Trone said.
The advertising has not softened feelings. Instead, it has fed them. Trone said, “My opponent is running on basically blatant lies,” while McClain Delaney contends that the former congressman has a tendency to “say anything, do anything and spend anything, particularly against a woman.”
One distortion of big money in politics. some voters say. is that the scale of spending can go unnoticed or be dismissed. In this primary. it has gone through a cycle where some viewers say they’re annoyed by the tone without tracing it back to the root cause. But the campaign’s volume is hard to ignore, even for those who have made up their minds.
“I voted for April, and I voted that way because I don’t like Trone’s advertisements,” said Rosanne Sabatelli, 79.
On the ground, the contradictions land with a particular bluntness at polling locations. As voters cast decisions in the closing days. the candidates’ own signs near the entrance of an early voting stop distilled how absurd the situation can feel. On the right, one sign urged voters to re-elect Congresswoman April McClain Delaney. On the left, another asked voters to do the same thing for Democrat David Trone.
If the setup feels confusing, even Republicans have said so. “That is kind of deceptive, because he’s not technically the incumbent, she is,” said 43-year-old GOP voter Jennifer Hugi.
And while both leading candidates have put their wealth into the election. the one vote they can’t buy is their own: neither Trone nor McClain Delaney lives in the district they have invested so deeply in trying to represent next year. “I don’t need the job, but I love making a difference,” Trone said. “I don’t want to sit on a damn beach. I don’t want to do nothing.”.
In the end, Tuesday’s primary may decide which wealthy Democrat carries the party banner in the fall. But for the people who live with the noise—who watch the ads. hear the insults. and stand in front of signs asking them to choose—what is being argued is not only who should lead. It’s whether democracy is still supposed to be something everyone can reach. or something only the richest participants can afford to drive.
Maryland 6th Congressional District primary April McClain Delaney David Trone campaign spending political ads Democratic feud Total Wine John Delaney